Keeping patients out of hospital – a Cardiologist speaks

Published: 8th October 2015

One of the things we measure at Consultant Connect is how successful a clinical specialty is at keeping patients out of hospital. For example, our experience of Cardiology is that approximately 70% of calls made through Consultant Connect end in the patient avoiding a trip to hospital. A prospective customer asked us to find out what sort of things […]

One of the things we measure at Consultant Connect is how successful a clinical specialty is at keeping patients out of hospital. For example, our experience of Cardiology is that approximately 70% of calls made through Consultant Connect end in the patient avoiding a trip to hospital.

A prospective customer asked us to find out what sort of things Cardiologists are advising on through Consultant Connect. We spoke with one of the consultants on the system and here is what he said:

“Cardiology is a very large topic, so I find myself dealing with a wide range of patient conditions. I have dealt with the following in the past few months:

Management of AF

Management of chest pain

Management of breathlessness

Management of medicines

Patients starting new drugs

Patients coming off old drugs

Changes to existing drug regimens

Advice on whether existing medication will react with new medication options

Interpretation of ECGs

As examples of a couple of recent calls, there was one where a patient had an irregular pulse and the GP was unsure whether or not to refer or admit. The patient was referred. I had another call where I was able to advise a drug regimen that would not conflict with existing drugs the patient was taking”.

On his experience of using Consultant Connect, he said “For GPs, getting an immediate response to a request for advice is a vast improvement on the old situation. It is very satisfying to be able to help them in this way”.

If you would like to learn more about how Consultant Connect can help integrate primary and secondary care in your area, please call us on 01865 261451 or email us on info@esmpartners.co.uk.